Trending

Jane Goodall on Humans' Similarities to Chimps

By Robert Pace 5:00 AM PDT, August 22, 2012

Jane Goodall has had an affection for animals since she was a young child, and has devoted her life to studying animal behavior and conserving wildlife. The renowned primatologist met up with ET to talk about the animal species that she has been following her entire professional life: chimpanzees.

At the Los Angeles Zoo's chimpanzee habitat, Goodall discussed the lesser-known qualities of chimps that some may be surprised to learn.

"There are still an awful lot of people who are absolutely surprised to see how like us [chimps] are," Goodall noted. "People are [also] surprised at some of the aggression [that they exert]; they're surprised by the intercommunity conflict; and then they're surprised by the very altruistic side, which means that an adult male can adopt a motherless infant."

Chimpanzees being a species that she knows and loves, Goodall expressed content with the final result of the film Chimpanzee, which was released in theaters in April. She maintains that the film demonstrates the close relationship between chimps and humans.

"The story that was covered by this film-- the alpha male adopting a little infant--is really going to help people to understand how incredibly like us chimpanzees are," said Goodall, who wrote her doctorate thesis on the behavior of free-ranging chimps. "Things happen out there in the wild that you would never dream of."

As Goodall and her organization continue to work towards the study and conservation of chimpanzees, Disneynature has teamed up with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) to make a donation through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund to JGI for every purchase of the film between now and August 27.

Chimpanzee was released today on DVD and Blu-Ray, and is now available for purchase. For more information about the film, click here.